There comes a crossroads in any young manager’s career where he has to decide what route to go down with regards to fixing his ailing team. If it’s the fault of the players then he can partially reassure himself that it is somewhat outwith his control and look to rectify the situation at the nearest transfer window. If it’s the tactics that’s the issue, then it’s his problem to solve. Right now Alan Archibald is firmly in the belief that it’s the former and he is motoring on down this road regardless of what the results say.
They’ve scored two goals in their last five, losing all of them, and yet Archibald continued with Kris Doolan leading the attack in a lone striker’s role. However, pining all of Thistle’s problems on the shot-shy striker, or even a high proportion of them, would be too simplistic. Yesterday’s 1-0 defeat at Aberdeen told the story of a team that lacks an identity when they move into the final third. Earlier in the season we marvelled at their use of progressive full-backs and the triangular passing they would play in and around the penalty area. Opposing defenders marvelled at it too and, despite the anomaly of not scoring at home from open play, they were netting more than enough overall to make a case for top six contention. Now that the top flight has adjusted to their strengths and highlighted their weaknesses, the avenues aren’t where they used to be.
With the exception of 15 minutes to start the second half and the final ten minutes, the Thistle approach was very laboured and allowed an experienced defence to read each situation before confidently dealing with what they predicted was coming. Their only true chances of the first half came through Kallum Higginbotham running directly at the backline after capitalising on mistakes by Aberdeen players – first when a slack ball back granted him the ball right on half-way and then when Russell Anderson misjudged the path of a through pass and allowed Higginbotham inside position.
Early in the match the teams mirrored each other with an approach that mixed build up play through the channels and direct balls up to the centre forward which the supporting midfielders could then feed off. Aberdeen executed this with far greater success because of the differing attributes of each forward. Calvin Zola, because of his height and strength, made life much more difficult for Conrad Balatoni and Gabriel Piccolo than Doolan did for the Aberdeen pairing of Russell Anderson and Andrew Considine. In fairness to Doolan, his strength is the ability to latch onto direct balls, particularly played through the channels, as he moves off the shoulder of the last defender. These types of passes are not mere hopeful punts, but measured balls into the space. Thistle could not direct such play towards him because Zola, supported by Gregg Wylde, Niall McGinn and Peter Pawlett, continually harried their back-line when in possession and the hurried lobs down the park often missed their target. Aberdeen, on the other hand, had no such problems with Thistle refusing to pressure the defence in fear of being caught too high up the park. Gregg Wylde (11th minute), Michael Hector (16th minute) and Peter Pawlett (17th minute) all benefited from passes made over 30 yards that were directed specifically for them to either attack or run onto. In fact, the Hector attack started with Anderson receiving the ball four separate times as Aberdeen kept possession along the back-four, patiently waiting for something to open up further forward, which it eventually did.
The deep lying Thistle defence also became counter-productive when Zola started to bully Piccolo and could receive the ball very close to goal. On 40 minutes he backed in and moved the last defender five yards backwards, eventually touching the ball eight yards from goal before laying-off. Not only did this highlight the flaws in the defensive approach – they would push further up in the second half – it also demonstrated the ease with which Aberdeen could create a threatening attack, where as Thistle were testing their patience and concentration to the limit just trying to get near the Aberdeen box.
In the first ten minutes of the second half, Thistle finally decided to up the tempo and take some early chances when in possession: Christie Elliot won a corner on 46 minutes after been given a ball down the wing to chase; Higginbotham tried an early through ball that was cut-out at the last second by a defender; the same player then took a quick free-kick a minute later that released Forbes who’s cross was blocked; Forbes himself then attempted an early cross that was flicked away, before Aaron Taylor Sinclair hit a cross from deep that was headed wide by Elliot. They were taking more chances and making Aberdeen nervous. However, the half time re-energise soon wore off and the fell back into a familiar pattern. The 74th minute saw a move where Taylor-Sinclair passed up the opportunity of an early cross in favour of a pass backwards, it was the first of four backwards passes in a move that three times came to the edge of the area but no ball was delivered to the waiting pack.
Aberdeen, meanwhile, were continuing their gameplan but removed Zola in favour of Josh Magennis. The latter is not as strong but he is a lot quicker and the switch gave them an extra attacking dimension as Thistle began to throw more bodies forward. If there was any apprehension that Magennis would not enjoy the same success, strength wise, against Piccolo it was quickly dismissed within two minutes of the attacker coming on as he held off the Mexican before shooting from 25 yards.
Thistle picked up the pace again for the last ten minutes, with Higginbotham attempting two shots after cutting in onto his right foot and Taylor-Sinclair finally hitting the by-line to send in a cross, but their struggles were highlighted with the ease in which Aberdeen were making chances. On 83 minutes a clever back-heel from Magennis released McGinn running into the penalty area just left of centre. They were on their own against four defenders, similarly out numbered as the Thistle attackers, and yet they’d created a chance through movement around the penalty area.
Three minutes into stoppage time substitute John Baird released Higginbotham down the left with a quick pass. The attacker went around his man, got to the by-line and made a cut-back for Isaac Osbourne, who was dreadfully unlucky to see his shot hit a defender and go for a corner. It left a lingering feeling that such a high-tempo move would not have been attempted if it were earlier in the match, and if Thistle want to shake this “unlucky” tag then they are going to have to take chances like this more often.
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